News, insight and some thoughts about the Sacramento-area real estate market

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July 14, 2008

The June sales numbers start rolling in

"Bank-owned properties continue to flood the market under $200,000 while tight credit is really hurting sales above $400,000."

TrendGraphix has released here the first of several June sales reports expected to arrive in coming days. The research arm of Sacramento's Lyon Real Estate shows that sales of existing homes (not new ones) continue be well up over the same time last year. That's now a three-month trend. But much of the action remains in the repo end of the market.

For-sale inventory in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties is 11,854 - lowest since early 2007. (22 percent, about one in five are bank repos). The official thinking is this: most people who can wait won't even try to sell in a market where they'll compete against cheaper bank repos. It also reflects a pickup in sales.

Lyon's Assistant Controller Sara Veliz said that repos are selling on average, after 69 days on the market. Individual sellers trying to compete take a little longer: 81 days.

Here is a look at recent historical Trendgraphix for-sale inventory numbers  for those four counties. The peak was Aug. 2007 at 16,262. (The peak during the '90s downtown was a little over 13,000 in April 1992).

2007
Jan.  10,971
Feb.   11,410
March 12,500
April    14,026
May    14,704
June    15,566
July     15,927
Aug.    16,262 (record high)
Sept.  16,081
Oct.   15,7126
Nov.   14,904
Dec.   13,994

2008:
Jan.     13,445
Feb.     13,351
March   13,116
April      12,601
May      12,366
June      11,854



Posted by Jim Wasserman, July 14, 2008 9:48 AM